Sasha Chanoff

Sasha Chanoff found his voice at Wesleyan, and not just singing with the Spirits.

As founder and CEO of RefugePoint, a humanitarian organization working to help refugees access life-changing safety and security, and as co-author of From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions, Sasha Chanoff has dedicated his life to helping others find dignity in the most challenging circumstances. Over the past twenty years, RefugePoint has worked in 64 countries, resettling nearly 140,000 displaced people. A passionate believer in collaboration and supporting others to achieve mutual goals, Sasha and his colleagues have changed the metrics in their field—developing the Self-Reliance Index, a tool critical in assessing refugees’ progress toward independent living—now in use in over 50 organizations across 28 countries.

Sasha credits his time at Wesleyan with giving him the expansiveness needed to reimagine refugee resettlement dynamics. “My experience at Wesleyan helped me envision a different future and way of helping refugees. When creating RefugePoint, I never thought about whether it was going to work or not. I thought, “There’s a need—I see unfilled resettlement spots, a broken system and I know the people and the players.” That certainty traces directly back to having the freedom to explore, having the intellect around you and colleagues who push you to think deeper about the issues you care about. Wesleyan may be unparalleled in its ability to let you tune into your own values and figure out who you are, encouraging you to express that in the world and take action with confidence. I knew I wanted to work with refugees and do something about this particular problem. At Wesleyan, I found a distinct voice that I felt compelled to share with the world.”